The disclosure relates to an article of diving equipment, including a compressed air bottle, which is connected to a breathing apparatus, and an inflatable jacket by means of which buoyancy can be balanced out by the jacket being connectable in normal mode to the compressed air bottle for inflation or to an outlet for letting out air, wherein there is provided a control device which is activatable by means of a control valve in dependence on a surrounding water pressure and which has a time control unit which, after the expiry of a defined time and if there is an absence of breathing activity in the breathing apparatus, transfers into an emergency mode and, by means of a control line, activates an emergency valve, which, at the same time, connects the jacket to the compressed air bottle and consequently forces the jacket to inflate.
Modern diving equipment usually includes a buoyancy compensating jacket, also called a BCD (buoyancy control device), which serves at the same time as a supporting structure for a compressed air bottle of the diving equipment and by means of which the diver is able to regulate and balance out his buoyancy in a precise manner at any depth by means of blowing in or letting out air.
In this case, a buoyancy compensating jacket is generally provided with several valves which are provided for controlling the blowing in or letting out of air into or out of an air lock of the jacket and frequently also for introducing emergency measures. Said emergency measures are introduced, for example, in the event of a defined amount of compressed air in the compressed air bottle being fallen below or in the event of an absence of breathing activity on the part of the diver.
Diving equipment which, in this case, is composed of a buoyancy compensating jacket and a compressed air bottle as well as a valve arrangement for controlling a compressed air supply from the compressed air bottle to the buoyancy compensating jacket, proceeds from WO2007/058615 A1. In this case, buoyancy of a diver is balanced out by means of the buoyancy compensating jacket by the jacket, in normal mode, either being inflated by means of the compressed air bottle or compressed air being let out of the jacket. The valve arrangement, in this case, includes a control device, by means of which it is possible to changeover from normal mode to emergency mode. For this purpose, there is provided a control valve which activates the control device in dependence on a surrounding water pressure. The control device, in this case, has a time control unit which is composed of a diaphragm valve and delaying means. When the control device is activated by means of the control valve, the diaphragm valve is acted upon with compressed air from the compressed air bottle and directs the compressed air by means of a first working line further to the delaying means. If the diver then takes a breath from the breathing apparatus, the compressed air directed to the diaphragm valve is forwarded by means of a second working line to the delaying means, the supplying of pressure by means of the second working line causing the delaying means to be reset. However, if the diver does not take a breath from the breathing apparatus over a period defined by the delaying means, the delaying means, by means of a control line, thus activate an emergency valve which, in this case, connects the jacket to the compressed air bottle and consequently forces inflation of said jacket. As a consequence, the supposedly non-breathing diver is then conveyed back to the surface of the water.
Proceeding from the above-described prior art, it is now the object of the present disclosure to provide an article of diving equipment where operations of the control device are able to be influenced manually by the diver, said influencing, in this case, having to be producible by the diver in as easy a manner as possible.